Spiritual evolution and ultimate realization do not lie in the outer world, but within the stream of consciousness and its relationship to the body’s matrix of energies and elements.

All yogic and meditative traditions teach that the spiritual path lies in the inner transformation of the heart and mind, which takes place in the container of the body.

But what exactly is the ultimate goal of these diverse practices, described in numerous ways in different times and cultures? What is most relevant and attainable for people in the modern world — and what is the best way to attain that goal?

Modules 1-3 will set the stage for the course by exploring why we should look deeply into the nature of the body, mind, and heart, how we’ll do it, how we can use medicinal plants to support our quest and journey, and what we can realistically hope to achieve.

What You’ll Discover

Theory

• Primary objectives of the course and its practices
• Preparations for using herbs, essential oils, and foods during the course
• Origin of the teachings in classical Asian medical, yogic, and spiritual lineages
• Introduction to the body as a matrix of universal elements and energies

Practices

• Introduction to meditation methods presented in the course
• Introduction to the contemplative use of medicinal plants and essential oils to study the matrix of energies and elements in the body
• Introduction to “listening to the heart” meditations

What You’ll Discover

Theory

• The different meanings of enlightenment in meditative, yogic, and spiritual lineages
• The importance of an ultimate spiritual goal for wellbeing and happiness
• The intimate relationship between spiritual and ecological health
• How awareness of the elements and energies of the body transforms ordinary consciousness into ecological spirituality — and develops intuition for self-healing
• The role of medicinal plants in supporting the spiritual path

Practices

• Self-inquiry to determine one’s spiritual goals and aspirations
• How to use the most important herbs and oils to support meditation practices
• Methods to develop ecological spirituality
• Becoming aware of the ever-present nature of the heartbeat and its relationship to spiritual consciousness

What You’ll Discover

Theory

• The meaning of Svasthya, abiding in the Self, according to Ayurveda
• The benefits of Svasthya as the highest form of mental and spiritual health and wellbeing
• Learning to perceive Ahamkar: the process of self-identification in the matrix of identity-less energies and elements
• Using herbs, essential oils, and meditation to observe the process of self-creation

Practices

• The practice of Svasthya: learning how to abide in the Self
• The method of self-inquiry using the principles of Ayurvedic, Chinese, and Tibetan medicine
• “Sitting Forgetting” — Taoist meditation for loosening ego fixations

The matrix of the body and mind is energized by a life force, known in classical Asian philosophy as Prana and Qi…

The concepts of Prana and Qi are central to all Vedic, Ayurvedic, Tantric, and Taoist yogic, meditative, and healing lineages. In medicine, Prana and Qi are the basis of diagnosis and treatment; in yoga, Qigong, and meditation they the basis of spiritual practices.

From classical Asian medicine we learn there are numerous classifications and types of Prana and Qi operating at all levels of the body and mind — from physiological functions to states of consciousness, to the flow of time, to the cycle of birth and death.

This knowledge, perception and understanding of the nature of Prana and Qi is synonymous with spiritual evolution… it’s also the basis of making healthy lifestyle choices, managing stress, and myriad other important practical applications.

What You’ll Discover

Theory

• Descriptions of Prana and Qi according to the Vedas and Taoism
• Prana and Qi of physical organ systems
• Prana and Qi of the energy body and subtle nervous system
• Perceiving, understanding and living with Prana and Qi as the intelligence of creation in the body
• How we absorb Prana and Qi from food, breath, and senses
• The Prana and Qi of emotions and their influence on the body
• The Prana and Qi of the body and its influence on emotions

Practices

• Categories of herbs and oils to study and balance the major types of Prana and Qi
• Meditations to study different levels of Prana and Qi
• Using awareness of Prana and Qi to enhance intuition and sensitivity for self-healing

What You’ll Discover

Theory

• How botanical Prana and Qi creates and maintains the planetary biosphere
• How plants absorb and concentrate the healing powers of celestial and terrestrial Prana and Qi
• How the Prana and Qi of plants affect the quality, quantity, and movement of Prana and Qi in the body
• How plants form the bridge between consciousness and matter
• How botanical Prana and Qi support human spiritual evolution

Practices

• Meditation methods to enhance perception of Prana in foods, medicinal plants, and the environment
• Primary herbs and essential oils from major categories of botanical Prana and Qi

What You’ll Discover

Theory

• Introduction to Prana Vata, the Master Prana of the mind, heart, breath, senses, and nervous system
• How the flow of Prana and Qi through the senses creates inner and outer reality
• Using herbs, foods, oils, and meditation to study the pranic flow of taste, smell, sound, sight, and touch
• How to purify the 5 senses with pranic awareness
• Transforming ordinary sensory perception into perception of spiritual and cosmological reality
• The connection between the heart and sensory perceptions of the world

Practices

• Meditations to develop an awareness of the Master Prana and train the mind to perceive its flow
• The “5 flowers” — observing how the heart opens the sensory world

The inner spiritual teachings of classical Asian medicine and its associated yogic influences offer profound insights into fundamental existential questions…

Questions related to life and death, the relationship of the body and mind, and how formless consciousness inhabits the matrix of elemental form. Tibetan embryology describes how patterns of consciousness in the incarnating mindstream determine the elemental constitution of the body at the time of conception.

The Kalachakra Tantra, one of the influences of Tibetan medicine, describes how the external world is created by the incarnating consciousness as a place for fulfilling its karmas. Taoist mystics tell us that spirit transforms into birth and back again in an ongoing cycle.

From Vedanta and Ayurveda we learn there are five interwoven bodies — from the external elements of food and water to the most subtle consciousness beyond time and space. From Sankkya philosophy and Ayurveda we learn that mahat, universal mind, evolves into individual mind and sense consciousness.

Tantric meditation teaches us that for Prana to awaken the subtle nervous system of the chakras, we must first create a mental body of emptiness as the container.

Studying these profound teachings deepens our self-knowledge and spiritual awareness.

Indeed, contemplating the mystical dimensions of life, death and incarnation is one of the most direct paths to spiritual growth — and the development of inner wisdom.

What You’ll Discover

Theory

• Concepts of the mindstream from Buddhist, Tantric, and Vedic meditation lineages
• The journey of the mind through the 6 bardos
• Taoist teachings on the cycle of transformations from birth, death, and reincarnation
• The 4 levels of Prana Vata: breath, nerve current, heartbeat, mindstream
• The movement of Prana and Qi through waking, sleeping, and dreaming
• How the subtle energies and elements of consciousness manifest in space and time
• The profound transcendent wisdom of knowing the innermost levels of Prana

Practices

• The first heartbeat: contemplating our embryonic origin
• The river of time: contemplating our lifespan in the flow of heartbeats
• The great mystery: meditating on the space between the last and first heartbeat
• Using herbs and oils to enhance awareness of the nature of the mindstream

What You’ll Discover

Theory

• Understanding the conjunction between the mind, sense organs, and the external world
• How the qualities of consciousness determine the relationship between the body and the world, and how that supports or damages health and wellbeing
• The 4 levels of conjunction between the senses and sense objects and what it means to individual and collective destiny

Practices

• The heartbeat as a mirror of the mind and its thoughts and feelings
• Meditation to master the conjunction of mind and sense objects
• The best herbs and oils for cultivating equanimity to the outer world

What You’ll Discover

Theory

• The evolution of universal mind into individual mind and body
• The 5 interwoven bodies according to Vedanta
• The 3 mystic treasure boxes in the heart that contain primordial omniscient consciousness
• Principles of Tantric deity meditations and the use of archetypal visualizations to connect with universal mind
• Principles of Tantric meditations in the body of emptiness

Practices

• Meditations to identify the 5 bodies and their relationships
• Tantric meditation on the body of emptiness
• Classifications of medicinal plants for the 5 bodies

The body is a system of channels, and the elements of earth flow through as nutrients, water as fluids, sunlight as metabolic heat, and breath.

The movement of these four elements through the channels of internal space create the flow of physical sensations that give rise to our experience of being incarnated in a body and the illusory sensation of separation from the world and others.

With relatively little effort, you can suspend the illusion of your biological boundaries and experience the deeper underlying elemental unity we have with all life… which is directly connected in every moment to the same flowing elements that are moving through us all with each breath and heartbeat.

From this awareness arises a profound sense of freedom knowing that we are woven into the fabric of existence, yet free of ultimate substantiality. From that realization dawns the simple, spontaneous, and genuine compassion of ecological spirituality.

What You’ll Discover

Theory

• Introduction to the 5 element systems of Ayurveda and Chinese medicine
• How to have a sacred relationship with nature’s elements in and around us
• Understanding the subtle and dense levels of the elements in the mind and body, and what this means for health, happiness, and spiritual identity
• How the 5 elements combine to form the 3 biological systems of Vata, Pitta, and Kapha
• Prana, Tejas, and Ojas: the subtle forms of Vata, Pitta, and Kapha
• Primary herbs and essential oils for each element and the 3 body types

Practices

• Listening to the heart: learning to feel the flow of the outer elements through the center of the heart
• Developing awareness of biological unity with meditations on fire, air, and space elements in and around the body
• Using specific herbs and essential oils to enhance meditation on the fire, air, and space elements
• Cultivating natural compassion by meditating on the 5 elements

What You’ll Discover

Theory

• The meaning of rasa and its importance to health
• Learning to perceive the rasa of foods, herbs, and essential oils for increasing health, immunity, and longevity
• Understanding rasa (flavor), virya (energy) and vipak (post digestive effects) of foods and herbs, and their influences on the matrix of energies and elements in the body
• How the flow of nutrients through the tissue levels creates the sense of self and karmic propensities
• How to perceive the qualities of the elements, and how to use the qualities of herbs to balance the element of the body and mind
• Using herbs and essential oils to increase awareness of earth and water elements and their powers in the body

Practices

• Meditations to enhance awareness of the earth and water elements in the body
• Gathering the jade juice: Qigong for self hydration
• Using herbs and oils to study rasa and support and balance the earth and water elements in the body and mind

What You’ll Discover

Theory

• Transforming ordinary self-perception by contemplating divine symmetry and cosmological patterns in the body
• Understanding the link between solar energy and digestive metabolism
• Developing ecological spirituality by understanding the link between human and botanical respiratory systems
• Discovering cosmological identity by understanding the influence of sun and moon on the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems
• Understanding the unity between flowerings plants, solar and lunar cycles, and human biorhythms
• Understanding and using the purifying and rejuvenating powers of the 5 elements for individual and collective health and wellbeing

Practices

• Meditations on the unity of sunlight and digestive power
• Using herbs and essential oils for studying and balancing digestive fire
• Meditations to experience the biorhythmic powers of flower essential oils
• Using herbs and essential oils for studying the unity of human and botanical respiration
• Using herbs and oils that purify and rejuvenate the 5 elements

The inner spiritual traditions of classical Asian medicine are rich sources of teachings about the influences of solar and lunar energies — and their relationships to plants, the fire of metabolism, and the fluid systems in the human body.

These teachings have applications for diagnosis and treatment as well as meditation. They’re fundamental to Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine, as well as Tantric ritual and meditations in the inner landscape of the energy body.

At a practical level, these teachings can be applied to understanding our body type, to understanding proper diets and lifestyle, and to knowing which herbs are best for our needs.

At a spiritual level, they offer us a way to discover how the celestial influences of sunlight and moonlight, and the terrestrial influences of fire and water that are continually active in our physiology and mental and emotional states. This leads to heightened awareness of our biological unity with nature and cosmological identity.

Through meditation and contemplative practices, we can become aware of how the warmth of the body and the light of consciousness are the manifestations and expressions of sunlight distilled by the alchemy of metabolism.

With sustained meditation practice and mindful use of foods and herbs, we can become aware of how the nutritional nectar alchemically distilled in the body from plant essences is the basis of consciousness — and the source of inner peace and contentment.

What You’ll Discover

Theory

• Concepts of digestive fire in Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine
• The physical, mental, emotional, sensory, and spiritual functions of the fire element
• The evolution of light into consciousness: the flow of solar energy from the sun through metabolic transformation and into the light of awareness and perception
• Primary herbs and essential oils for supporting the solar energies and fire element of the body
• Inner and outer, subtle and dense forms of metabolism: the link between digestive fire and mental and emotional digestion, assimilation, and clarity

Practices

• Using the most important herbs and essential oils for physical, mental, and emotional digestive transformation
• Meditation methods for perceiving the flow of solar energy in the body and our biological unity with the sun

What You’ll Discover

Theory

• How human consciousness is rooted in the essence of flowering plants
• The relationship between moonlight, water, sweetness, and rejuvenation of vitality
• Sweet herbs and essential oils that regenerate physical, mental, and emotional stamina
• How nutrient essence is the basis of immunity, contentment, fulfillment, and spiritual evolution
• Lunar symbolism in Tantric meditation and the qualities of moonlight in the nature of the mind

Practices

• Meditation to enhance awareness of the physical and mystical dimensions of water and moonlight
• Using herbs and oils rich in moonlight for supporting tranquility, contentment, and rejuvenation

What You’ll Discover

Theory

• Prana vata and the perception of the flow of time
• The Prana and Qi of time, seasons, biorhythms, and stages of life
• The 3 phases and constitutions of life according to Ayurveda and Tibetan medicine
• Deepening spiritual awareness by understanding biorhythms as cosmological time
• Cycles of inner and outer time as described by the Kalachakra Tantra

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Practices

• Meditations to study and harmonize organ biorhythms
• Using herbs and oils to stabilize healthy biorhythms

The body is a pulsating matrix of energies and elements, kept alive by the beating of the heart; the heartbeat is the outer expression of our inner pranic essence, and that in turn is ultimately derived from Mahat, the mind of the universe. Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine and their associated yogic and meditation lineages offer unique teachings and insights concerning the spiritual dimensions of the heart and their relationships to the mind and emotions.

These holistic concepts articulate tangible and intangible aspects of our being, such as the luminosity of our presence, the impact of moods on immunity, and our cognitive functions. Knowledge of the spiritual dimensions of the heart informs us that we are immaterial vapor of consciousness infused in the materiality of the body, which helps us understand our true nature and the challenges of maintaining balance in the earthly elements.

Cultivating this awareness has important applications for healing mental and emotional disturbances, especially stress, insomnia, anxiety, and depression, as the luminosity of the heart is directly related to how we process stimuli from the world and our emotional reactions to it. At a spiritual level, purification of consciousness so we can return to our true luminous nature is the primary goal of many yogic and meditative traditions.

What You’ll Discover

Theory

• The self-love and self-nourishment of heart-focused meditation
• How the Prana of the heart is the link between spirit, mind, and body
• 7 levels of heart Prana: discovering the deeper energetic, spiritual, and cognitive dimensions of the heart
• Understanding Shen, the luminosity of the heart as described by Chinese medicine
• The role of botanical medicine in supporting the luminosity of the heart
• One heartbeat: deepening spiritual awareness by understanding the pulsation of the universe from stars to microbes
• The biological connections between flowers, the heart, and the menstrual cycle

Practices

• Listening to the heart: cultivating self-nourishment and developing emotional intelligence
• The 7 levels of heart Prana: contemplating the life force that animates the heart
• Meditations to study the 7 levels of heart Prana
• The best herbs and oils to enhance heart-centered meditations and supporting the brightness of the spirit

What You’ll Discover

Theory

• Understanding the biological and subtle energy connections to our ancestors in the heartbeat
• The heart as the inner teacher, guide, and oracle
• The heart as a window into dreams
• Listening to the heart for abiding in the Self
• How listening to the river of the heartbeat transforms consciousness

Practices

• Listening to the heartbeat to connect with ancestral memories
• Consulting the oracle: listening to the intuition of the heart for spiritual guidance
• Listening to the heart to increase recall of dreams

• Review and clarification of all meditation practices
• Review and clarification of all practices using foods, herbs, and essential oils
• Review and evaluation of primary objectives of course and practices